Park Bench Lunch
by crescentgaia
Summary: Peter and Elizabeth are having lunch when Neal crashes it. One Shot - Complete! Spoilers for the season 1 finale inside.


_Disclaimer: I do not own White Collar or any of its characters. Please Enjoy!_

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Peter sighed contently as he sat down next to El on the park bench. He took the sandwich offered to him, grateful for the fact that it was finally Spring. "How is your day going?" He asked of her.

"Slow for the moment," El replied. "Earlier today, there was a snag with the catering for the museum event this Saturday, but we fixed it. It turned out there was no vegetarian slash vegan option. We decided to just go with the vegetarian only instead of trying to make it vegan. Just easier."

"Ah," Peter replied, nodding a yes to what El was saying. In truth, he didn't even understand why there had to be different food that would border on what one would feed a rabbit. He knew his questions were better left unsaid. He was about to say something as he saw a familiar person coming up to them out of the corner of his eye. "What now?"

"Hello," Neal said in his upbeat voice with his signature grin.

Peter looked annoyed at his young partner. "Neal, what are you doing here?" He asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"I was bored and wanted lunch," Neal said with a shrug. "And it's nice outside, considering Spring is finally here."

"I do have another sandwich," El admitted as she dug it out of the lunch bag and offered it to Neal.

"Thanks," Neal said with a grin as he took the sandwich and sat down on the ground next to the park bench. "You knew then?"

"That you like crashing meal times?" El asked with a grin. "Yes."

Peter gave El a look as El just shrugged her shoulders. He sighed as he just took her hand, trying to salvage some of the precious small time that they had together. "Are you going to leave now, considering that you have the sandwich?" He asked Neal, even though he already knew the answer.

"I can't spend time here with the both of you?" Neal asked, giving Peter a wounded look. "And here I thought I was part of the family."

"You are when I'm not trying to have a lunch date with my wife!" Peter said and took a deep breath.

"Peter," El said and kissed his cheek. "Isn't it better he stay so you don't wonder where he's going?"

"I can track where he's going," Peter said but nodded a yes. He understood what El was saying and looked back to Neal. "You can stay."

"Thanks El," Neal said with a grin as he started to eat his sandwich. "Good choice with the peanut butter and jelly."

"It's Peter's favorite," El said with a grin. "Even though I think it tastes better with crunchy instead of smooth peanut butter."

"If you have crunch peanut butter, then you can't put potato chips in the sandwich," Peter pointed out. "It just makes the sandwich too crunchy."

"You're just odd," El said with a chuckle.

Neal listened to the two of them, smiling to himself a bit. They were nice to listen to – a married couple that would be together until they died and beyond that. He had the chance to have that and it slipped through his fingers. He wondered what would have happened if he didn't try to get her to leave the city with him. Or if he had let Peter in on his plans. He might have been able to have the same conversations that Peter had with Elizabeth about the differences in peanut butter. He stopped eating, just looking at the ground in front of him. He didn't even hear his name until the third time Peter said it. "Yeah?" He asked.

"El wanted to know if you wanted to come over to dinner when we're able to actually relax," Peter replied with a soft smile. He could tell that his young partner was taking Kate's death hard. He kept up the banter with Neal, if only to keep Neal's mind off of the fact that Kate was gone forever. Along with making sure that he wouldn't one day find that Neal's tracker wouldn't move from the place where he hung himself to follow Kate into the next life. "It'll probably be sometime late this week or early next week."

"Oh – sure," Neal said with a bit of a nod. "Thanks Elizabeth."

"You're welcome," Elizabeth said, looking at him with a soft smile. "How's Moz these days?"

"Worried," Neal said with a shrug. "He acts like he thinks that I'm going to do something drastic, which I'm not," he added on as he could feel Peter looking at him. "Kate would want me to live, not follow her. That was a rule that we gave each other. We would be there for everything, but if one of us died before the other, we would go on. I just didn't think it would be this hard to do. And then there's Alex who is wondering what the big deal is. She doesn't get it. I doubt she ever will. She's also angry at me due to the fact that I'm mourning Kate."

"Well, she needs to get over that," Elizabeth replied to Neal's last statement. "Or I doubt you'll ever go to her."

"I was going to leave with Kate – Alex wasn't even a thought in the back of my mind," Neal replied quietly. "I just…" he trailed off as he looked down. "I wish you hadn't stopped me, Peter."

Peter moved down to the ground, pulling Neal into a hug. "I know," he said quietly as he felt Neal start to cry into his shoulder. He sighed softly as he let Neal cry, being a comforting presence. He never thought he would be doing this for Neal, considering that his partner kept all his emotions about his private life to himself. He knew that it wouldn't be the last time that he would comfort Neal like this. He would remember to include Neal in more in the coming months in order to help him – he knew El wouldn't object – and maybe it would help him heal. But right now – right now he would comfort his young partner before sending him home with El to keep Neal sane.

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Author's Note: Hello! I hope that you enjoyed the fic. If you are a new reader of my works, I do hope that you liked it. There is more that I have written, but read below before your hopes are raised too high.

If you're one of my regular readers, I would like to apologize to you. I have been busy with big bangs and neglecting my work that is here. At the end of the month, I will have a bit more time on my hands and will be returning to these fics then. Please continue to be patient and I love all of you.

If you leave me a review and I do not reply, it's not due to neglect. I just sometimes forget to reply. Sorry about that as well.

Thank you so much for reading!


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